Friday, April 17, 2015

How to Break In a Dark Garden Corset

We often equate corset shopping to shoe shopping. Like shoes, if you only have one corset that you wear everyday, it will wear out more quickly. And like new shoes, your corset might need a little bit of time to break in and mold to your body. If you're wondering how long this process should take and how you should do it, this is the article for you! Much of this information is aimed at waist trainers, but even if you're just wearing your corset for a special occasion like a wedding you may have wondered about breaking in your new corset.

Our proprietress, Autumn Adamme, has been making corsets for over 25 years, and, having grown up in a historic costuming community, has been wearing them for over 30. You can see she has a lot of experience to draw on when designing the construction, fit, and wear of our handmade beauties!

Your new Dark Garden corset should fit you well from the get-go. Don't worry about "seasoning" your new corset, be it Ready-to-Wear, Personalized Made-to-Order, or Bespoke, to make it fit. Your new corset should lace to a gap of 2-3", with the ribs and hips just flush against the sides of your body, and a comfortable compression at the waist. If you are "seasoning" your corset with only the waist actually touching your body, you may as well just be wearing a belt!
Part of the reason to train with a corset instead of a belt is that you
support your guts while you make your waist more pliable.
If you
train too far without this support for your belly, you will encourage
that below the waist bulge that very few people like. Additionally, wearing your corsets with a too-wide gap strains the bones at the back of the corset and can cause them to twist in their channels or warp the fabric.

When you first pick up your new corset, wearing it at the standard 2" lacing gap might seem a bit too snug. Breaking in a corset, especially for first-time corset wearers, is also about training your body to understand the compression/redistribution and newly improved posture. With your body heat, the fibers of the fabric will over time relax and mold around your unique body shape and the corset itself becomes more pliable. The waist should stay fairly stable, because of the waist tape running the circumference of that area.

Here at Dark Garden, we do have an organic process of "breaking in" our corsets. It is a much more relaxed process than the "seasoning" espoused by many. The nuance in vernacular seems defined by common use, different methods to achieve the same goal.

Simply lace your corset as tight as you find comfortable.

Leave it on as long as you can, going about the sorts of activities you expect to experience while wearing your corset in the long run.

Do this as often as is practical.

If you're waist training, this will seamlessly translate to wearing your corset at its designated 2" gap on a daily basis.

A well-fitted corset should sit pretty flush against your
ribs and hips immediately, as would be assessed by our trained fitters on any visitors to our San Francisco boutique. Our company policy is to only sell corsets that are a good fit in both size and shape: a corset that stands away from the ribs and hips to a noticeable extent can chafe and create pressure points instead of support. Unless you are actively losing weight, your brand new corset should fit well with a gap that is no more than 1" wider than the final lacing gap measurement. In most cases, this means that you will have a 3" gap for first wear, and eventually settle to the standard 2". If the corset and your body are in perfect harmony, feel free to wear your corset perfectly laced to its 2" gap immediately, for as long as you like.

Breaking in a corset should not be the
mechanism that makes it fit. Breaking in a corset makes it more comfortable to wear,
especially for longer periods of time.

Friday, April 17, 2015

How to Break In a Dark Garden Corset

We often equate corset shopping to shoe shopping. Like shoes, if you only have one corset that you wear everyday, it will wear out more quickly. And like new shoes, your corset might need a little bit of time to break in and mold to your body. If you're wondering how long this process should take and how you should do it, this is the article for you! Much of this information is aimed at waist trainers, but even if you're just wearing your corset for a special occasion like a wedding you may have wondered about breaking in your new corset.

Our proprietress, Autumn Adamme, has been making corsets for over 25 years, and, having grown up in a historic costuming community, has been wearing them for over 30. You can see she has a lot of experience to draw on when designing the construction, fit, and wear of our handmade beauties!

Your new Dark Garden corset should fit you well from the get-go. Don't worry about "seasoning" your new corset, be it Ready-to-Wear, Personalized Made-to-Order, or Bespoke, to make it fit. Your new corset should lace to a gap of 2-3", with the ribs and hips just flush against the sides of your body, and a comfortable compression at the waist. If you are "seasoning" your corset with only the waist actually touching your body, you may as well just be wearing a belt!
Part of the reason to train with a corset instead of a belt is that you
support your guts while you make your waist more pliable.
If you
train too far without this support for your belly, you will encourage
that below the waist bulge that very few people like. Additionally, wearing your corsets with a too-wide gap strains the bones at the back of the corset and can cause them to twist in their channels or warp the fabric.

When you first pick up your new corset, wearing it at the standard 2" lacing gap might seem a bit too snug. Breaking in a corset, especially for first-time corset wearers, is also about training your body to understand the compression/redistribution and newly improved posture. With your body heat, the fibers of the fabric will over time relax and mold around your unique body shape and the corset itself becomes more pliable. The waist should stay fairly stable, because of the waist tape running the circumference of that area.

Here at Dark Garden, we do have an organic process of "breaking in" our corsets. It is a much more relaxed process than the "seasoning" espoused by many. The nuance in vernacular seems defined by common use, different methods to achieve the same goal.

Simply lace your corset as tight as you find comfortable.

Leave it on as long as you can, going about the sorts of activities you expect to experience while wearing your corset in the long run.

Do this as often as is practical.

If you're waist training, this will seamlessly translate to wearing your corset at its designated 2" gap on a daily basis.

A well-fitted corset should sit pretty flush against your
ribs and hips immediately, as would be assessed by our trained fitters on any visitors to our San Francisco boutique. Our company policy is to only sell corsets that are a good fit in both size and shape: a corset that stands away from the ribs and hips to a noticeable extent can chafe and create pressure points instead of support. Unless you are actively losing weight, your brand new corset should fit well with a gap that is no more than 1" wider than the final lacing gap measurement. In most cases, this means that you will have a 3" gap for first wear, and eventually settle to the standard 2". If the corset and your body are in perfect harmony, feel free to wear your corset perfectly laced to its 2" gap immediately, for as long as you like.

Breaking in a corset should not be the
mechanism that makes it fit. Breaking in a corset makes it more comfortable to wear,
especially for longer periods of time.